The Misadventures of Scaredy Squirrel by Eternos
by Frozarburst
Summary: Scaredy and the city of Balsa have been infected with superhuman abilities by a mysterious meteorite, and it's up to Scaredy to learn and adapt to his new powers. This is a collaboration between the maker of this story, Eternos137, and myself.


Story by Eternos

Original Series by Mélanie Watt

Collabed with Frozarburst

This is the story of an unlikely event. One that stretches across the world to the stars. There once was a small city named Balsa City, home to a variety of anthropomorphic animals of all kinds. Including one squirrel, who worked in the local grocery store. This is the story of a boy named Scaredy, who, though a bit timid, absolutely enjoys working there. And today, he is about to perform his regular routine, starting at his his acorn house. His alarm clock rings, and now, it's time for him to get to work. Stretching, Scaredy Squirrel began to make his bed as neatly as possible. "Good morning Richard!" he said aloud… to his houseplant. Yes, Richard is a potted plant that Scaredy owns (No, he doesn't talk. No, it isn't magical. But still… ) and it's one of Scaredy's few friends, which include one who is waiting for him at work right now.

Looking out the window, the happy Squirrel said, "Oh boy! Everything's looking perfect today! (Looks at wrist watch) No time for breakfast. Except…(Takes two acorns and swallows them whole) Good…"

Scaredy is taking his time today, despite him waking up just a bit later than usual. He knows that no matter what, he still enjoys his job. It's the one thing that keeps his mind straight beyond being a bit of a clean freak with a small variety of fears. He spends much of his time at the store working as the head stacker, almost always content despite anything else that may occur, unless it required him to leave for whatever reason at all. Either something crazy, or something he's afraid of or doesn't understand yet. As he locks his front door and strolls down to his job, he also takes the time to look around him. Usually to keep himself from getting dirty by exhaust from cars or dirt from the sidewalk, of all things. Many people are walking on by, some even saying a friendly hello like any normal day. Although, for just a moment, Scaredy feels slightly uneasy, he still continues. To him, this is just his nervous nature kicking in so he can still be aware of his surroundings. As he got onto the bus to get to the Stash "N" Hoard, he runs into his best friend, Dave the Skunk, who walks up to him and greets him like always.

"What's up, Scaredy?" the skunk said in a friendly greeting tone.

Scaredy replied, "Oh, hi Dave!" He then realized something, "Wait… Did you come early?"

"Early?" Dave said, confused, "I thought I came at normal time. Then again, it was daylight savings bout a week ago."

Indeed, Dave usually meets Scaredy at the store rather than on the squirrel's daily commute. He takes a brief look at his digital watch to check and see if the time is set right. He has it only one hour off, and simply readjusts it back to standard time. Though when he does it, the screen starts stuttering.

"Huh. Weird. Guess wifi sucks right now. Anyway, you're soundin' more chill today!" Dave said in his typical demeanor.. "What's got 'ya all peppy?"

Scaredy speaks to Dave as he calmly stacks boxes on top of others in a rather rhythmic pattern, as though he's listening to music in his head. He says,"Oh, nothing. I just really love working here! Either that, or I have a pretty good feeling about today!"

Dave's tone suddenly changed, "Yeeeah...That's kinda why I ask. See, Nestor would've told ya, but…" He then pointed inside. When Scaredy entered, his mood instantly faltered.

The whole store as a huge mess. The employees were running around the the place with cleaning supplies, mopping the floors, putting things back on the shelves, etc. Suddenly a voice rang out a few seconds after the two stepped in!

"SCAREDY!" It was Nestor, the manager of the Stash N' Hoard. "WE need help over here! Get to work!" The hark was pretty much as tightly wound as ever.

Scaredy, recovering from the shock of the mess, then said, "I'm on it!" He then though, _Oh Jeez! I gotta fix this place before it ruins the rest of my day!_

Scaredy then rushes toward the other end of the store using his tail as a boost, sending him right into the mess of juices, litter, and fallen groceries from the shelves. He gags a little at the state of it, the germaphobe. Then, almost like a superhero, he takes his mop, and he smacks the goods that weren't smashed open back onto the shelves and cabinets, while also using the other end of the mop to clean the floors! This is so interesting to almost everyone, that despite Scaredy having a vivid phobia of uncleanliness, he still takes what was left of his optimism for this very moment. It's as though he's turned into a completely different person for just a few minutes. Soon, Dave himself starts digging it and joins in on the clean up with a vacuum, despite forgetting to turn it on. Nestor even begins to smile and raise his eyebrows, though hesitantly, as he normally doesn't like to express his own care for the employees; particularly Scaredy or Dave. In fact when he saw another employee who looks at him oddly, he yells at the poor guy, "Get back to work!"

Scaredy takes a quick glance when he's nearly finished cleaning in less than 3 minutes or less. When he does, he sees in the backroom where he normally works that the boxes he's supposed to be stacking were already stacked by him before he started mopping. An employee comes up to him and takes a look as well, and asks "What is that..?"

"It's art, my friend," the squirrely said confidently, "Raw art."

"It's a cruise ship…"

"Exactly!"

Indeed the cans were stacked neatly into the seemingly impossible shape of a cruise ship, complete with anchors. Later scaredy is back out in the main area of the store, recreating this feat with some boxes outside. "See Dave?" Scaredy said, "Nothing is gonna get in the way of me having a great day!"

Dave, who is also enjoying his day riding a tiny children's ride shaped like a fire truck rocking back and forth while fake siren goes off, as he does.

"Oh yeah! Same!" Dave said to him. But right after he said it, the fire truck shuts off and he checks his wallet for more money, but finds only a spare toothpick.

"Does anyone have a quarter?"

Nestor on the intercom: Attention, all employees, I have a special announcement to make!

Scaredy: Oh boy!

Dave: A special announcement? Last time we had one, is was a ceremony for someone getting fired.

Nestor: Tomorrow evening, our boss, aka, my Mother, is going to visit to award one of you as employee of the month! So whatever you do, don't suck at your job! (Cuts off intercom)

The employees look around, unsure as to what to say, when all of a sudden, one of them yells "IMMA BE THE BEST ME THERE EVER WAS!" All of the workers immediately get back to work with haste, walking to customers offering to help them, sweeping, stacking boxes next to the pile shaped like a cruise ship, all while moving frantically. Only Scaredy seems calmer than everyone else; which almost sounds like a reverse of his own personality.

"Uh… Scaredy?," Dave asked, concerned, "You feeling okay?"

Scaredy replies,"Yeah! I'm just surprised it's happening tomorrow! We haven't even done much for weeks! What do you expect to happen when working at a grocery store?!"

Dave gives a pretty bum expression and says, "Look where we live, bro. Anything can happen."

"Either way, I'm still gonna be the best employee and get that award!" the squirrel replied, "I hadn't won last time, but I'll bet tomorrow's gonna be the day!"

A voice suddenly rang out, "Heheheh. Yeah right!"

Scaredy and Dave turn around and meet Paddy. Like everyone is to Scaredy, this smooth looking ferret's the opposite of him. He's a bit cocky and brash, so it's likely that seeing him around could mean he's up to no good. Especially at Scaredy's job. He DID look a bit overconfident at the moment. "I've been preparing for that sweet title for quite a while now. The Employee of the Month title will be mine!"

"You too, huh," said Scaredy.

"Yeah! I'm into this just as much as you are. Besides, someone's gotta win 20 months in a row!"

Paddy takes out a chart showcasing over 19 medals with one empty slot for the 20th one. As always, he wears a smug grin on his face, gloating at Scaredy. But the young squirrel believes he's still going to win, at least for his behavior.

Dave simply told him, quite pointedly, "Ya never even worked here that long, Paddy!"

"I know!" the rat smugly replied, "These are from other jobs. Like this one's one for working as a security guard at some kid's pizzeria joint for a few weeks. But don't tell anyone what I did to those robots. I just wanted to make my job a lot easier..."

Scaredy immediately lost his joyous demeanor, cautiously saying, "Don't tell me you're gonna cheat your way through this like you did last time!"

"I'm not gonna," Paddy boasted, "'Cause, let's face it, I already know I've won against all you".

"We'll see about that!" Scaredy rebuked.

"Yeah! We'll see about that!" Dave repeated, before pointing to one of the isles, "Also, aisle 10 has a leak."

Paddy and Scaredy immediately run to said aisle with their mops in hand yelling the phrase "I'M ON IT!" Dave watches them get to work as they brush by him, but then he gets side tracked again and finds a quarter on the ground.

"Neat! A quarter!" he said, as he placed it in the slot and continued his fire truck ride.

As the workers at the Stash "N" Horde get to work at an incredibly faster rate than ever, somewhere above the skies, past the clouds and far above the atmosphere, a massive meteor quickly makes its way into the Earth, slowly decreasing in size as the heat burns it's surface to the point where it's only the size of a truck! It flies past the the city of Balsa into the outskirts, where it crash lands into an empty beach in the middle of the night, emitting a multicolored gas from it's crevices, fogging up it's surroundings. A gas that was beginning to spread to Balsa city…

The Next Morning…

Like yesterday, Scaredy quickly gets up for work from his acorn house. He locks up and says goodbye to Richard the plant before he exits on his merry way. Although, unlike last time he was walking around town, the city's not as busy. There are still pedestrians and cars moving like always, but there aren't as many people this time. Still, this doesn't bother Scaredy, It just makes him wonder. He doesn't take his time, quickly speed walking back to the Stash "N" Horde to hear the announcement. He hasn't won Employee of the Month in what feels like forever; either cause Nestor doesn't like him as much, or because he always seems to get himself into trouble. Just when he opens the door to the front of the store, he notices that all the employees are already in a circular crowd surrounding Nestor and his Mother, the owner of the store. She does inherit a bit of a soft spot for Scaredy and the other workers, but everyone knows that even the slightest mistake and you're fired. So her awarding someone is a big deal to them, including her son. Strangely, like outside, there aren't as many workers inside, but for those who are there, they're just as excited as Scaredy; all but one, who is having a hard time holding his phone without it burning his hand, possibly a sign that it's overheated. Dave accompanied Scaredy to give him support on the matter.

"This is it, Dave," the squirrel in question told him, "I'm about to be the best me that I can be. Now no one'll call me a coward again!"

"I didn't think you were this attached to, well, this," said Dave, who then took out a bag of fruit snacks and ate some, "You really wanna prove you're better than Paddy or somethin"

Scaredy replied, "Not really, but he's been a real pain recently. I'll bet he's right on the other side watching us with that smug face too!"

" Hohohooo!" the skunk went, "This outta be good."

Then, a middle aged woman appeared. A pinkish purple, with gray hair, glasses and a look on her head that simply says, _I am always upset_. She then spoke, "Greetings fellow employees! It's really good to see you all again! My son had told me all about how well you've been doing these past few weeks since I've been gone," Her tone then suddenly changed, "Especially since I _had_ to leave for the hospital during those two weeks because of that boiling coffee incident!" She looked angrily at her son when she said that ("It was an accident, Mom!") She then continued speaking, "Anyway, I didn't come here to monologue about me. I've come to talk about you. The fact that each of you are here for this occasion makes me proud to be your boss! And today, I'm going to acknowledge the one who showed the most promise. The one who went above and beyond, for a grocery worker."

Scaredy was getting excited, pumping his fists and wagging his tail excitedly. With Paddy, alternatively, looking smug, as if he expected and even KNEW that his name would be called out, thinking, _This is it..! The 20th medal is mine..!_

"The one who mopped the floors," the angry bird went, "stacked the crates, helped the customers, did this, that, and the other, not to mention the person who least deserves to GET FIRED… !" A few people flinched at this, "I present this medal of my gratitude for employee of the month to…" She the stopped mid-sentence and was staring shocked at something, which got everyone's attention, because she usually doesn't have that look on her face. Everyone turned to what she was looking at. There was a man just an ordinary citizen, but with one thing… off.

His hands were on FIRE! And he was completely oblivious, even asking, "Why is everyone looking at me?"!

He only reacted when Nestor's mother asked, "Is that man on fire?"

Just as the poor man starts realizing his hands were literally burning, he suddenly freaks out! Suddenly, he actually shot out fireballs from his very palms, much to his surprise! He looks around at everyone, who're each in shock at the turn of events. But just when things seemed abnormal at first, it gets worse when someone else in the crowd suddenly became enveloped in electricity, that was coming out of their own body!

"What's happening!?" Cried the man.

Everyone began to tremble at the sight, as more and more workers started to develop some form of superpower. Soon only a few, including Nestor, Scaredy, Dave, Paddy, and Momma were left untouched, which was odd even for their standards. Scaredy was shocked and concerned for everyone around. Paddy's, on the other hand was now worried that the announcement was cancelled. This actually annoyed him a little inside, causing a brief flash of red in his eyes, but he quickly pulled himself together and tried to assess what what was happening.

Dave simply looked confused, saying, "Ooookay. This is gettin' pretty weird right now. If anyone needs me, I'll be at the fire truck…"

Suddenly, as he walked, he actually busted right through some of the aisle shelves! This further shocked Scaredy, who was flabbergasted at the whole situation.

"Scaredy," spoke a now jumpy [at the turn of events] Nestor, "I-Is this another one of those things you keep getting yourself into?!"

Scaredy merely stammered at first, "No… I dunno… I need to go see if Dave's ok." He then ran of to find his skink friend and see if he was okay,

Paddy stands still watching Scaredy run off while also looking at himself through the broken glass in front of him, sees his eyes still flashing red with an odd sensation to them.


End file.
